'...that they may glorify God'.
A summary of a sermon preached from 1 Peter 212
by the Rev Peter Michell at Bells Yew Green on Sunday 1st February
2004AD
Too easily we may become discouraged
and doubt the usefulness of our witness. I want to encourage you, but
in a rather sobering way. Looking at Matthew 516 there seems
to be something almost over optimistic about what the Lord said in the
Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:16 reads:
Let your light so shine before men, that
they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
In my mind there is raised the question:
but do they - see... and glorify God? In reality they
may (a) glorify us! They say what a wonderful person you are - "a
real Christian". How we must beware of our motives. Too much we enjoy
the applause of men and getting the glory ourselves. All self seeking
must be rooted out of our hearts. Alternatively they may (b) despise
us. Awareness of the possibility that men may be against us is evident
in the Lord's sermon in Matthew 510-12. The same is
expressed in 1 Peter 212:
...having your
conduct honourable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you
as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify
God ... If we live
honourably before the Lord we may well be given a rough time by men.
They may feel quite threatened and judged by your godliness and rebel
against you. Don't expect to have an easy time as a Christian.
These responses to our godliness not
withstanding, God will be glorified. 1 Peter 212 helps us to
see how that can be. That verse ends like this: that... they may,
by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of
visitation. In order to see the point we need to answer the
question what is the day of visitation? Here is a
two-fold answer which is true to God's word.
A. GOD MAY
VISIT IN MERCY
See Luke 168&78:
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited
and redeemed His people
Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
It is such a visitation of God when a soul is born
again. The Holy Spirit comes upon a man - visits his soul - and grants
repentance and faith. When that happens to a man or woman that one will
say "I thank God for your witness" and God is glorified because of your
evangelical good works.
B. GOD MAY VISIT IN
ANGER
The Greek word for visitation is suggestive
of something a bit more threatening than what we have just considered.
The word literally means bishopric or oversight. There is
the idea of an investigation or visit for the purposes of
inspection. This seems to be the sense of Luke 1943-44 and
also in Zechariah 103:
My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will
punish the goatherds. For the Lord of hosts will visit His flock, the
house of Judah. If
the visitation is like that then the judgment of God against men will be
just because they were warned by your witness. Terribly, by good works
we participate in the judgment of men who are left without excuse for
unbelief. May no man be able to complain against us at the judgment,
"You never told me!"
At the name of Jesus every knee shall
bow. Some will bow
in this world as they are visited by God in mercy. Some will bow when
it is too late and God has visited in anger. There is a gracious
visitation in this life and there is a terrible visitation that will
come. Our witness has bearing on God's glory which ever way He may
visit a man. 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NKJV)
14 Now thanks be to God who
always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the
fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to
God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among
those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of
death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to
life. And who is sufficient for these things?
Who indeed is sufficient for these
things! The point is that either way our witness is valuable. We must
be sure that there is enough to our witness to condemn at the judgment
and to convert now! Then God will get the glory. |
